President Obama chose to override warnings that he was re-stocking enemy leadership as American troops continue to battle (and lose lives to) Taliban forces in Afghanistan. Julian E. Barnes and Siobhan Gorman write in the Wall Street Journal:

Before the U.S. transferred five Afghan Taliban detainees to secure the freedom of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, American intelligence officials predicted that two of the men would return to senior positions with the militant group, according to U.S. officials.

The classified assessment, a consensus of spy agencies compiled during the prisoner-swap deliberations, said two others of the five were likely to assume active roles within the Taliban, while only one of the five released detainees was considered likely to end active participation in the group's effort to undermine the elected government of Afghanistan.

The excuses offered in defense of this move to replenish enemy forces are exceedingly lame:

Some administration officials also saw in the swap a chance to establish a precedent for reconciliation talks with the Taliban as the U.S. presence in Afghanistan winds down, and some argue the same five Taliban could have been released someday even without a prisoner-exchange agreement.

Talks with the Taliban who just attacked Karachi Airport and hope to take control of Pakistan’s government and the nuclear arsenal it possesses? Where is there any evidence that the Taliban are amenable to peaceful coexistence with the Great Satan?

Qatar also agreed to provide a "re-education program" designed to draw the detainees away from militancy, which some officials hope will help in the next year to ease some of the risk that the detainees will return to the battlefield.

These creeps are fanatics, and re-education in the lap of luxury in Doha is not going to persuade them to give up their dream of a global caliphate.

Reckless disregard is the kindest term I can come up with for Obama’s behavior.

President Obama chose to override warnings that he was re-stocking enemy leadership as American troops continue to battle (and lose lives to) Taliban forces in Afghanistan. Julian E. Barnes and Siobhan Gorman write in the Wall Street Journal:

Before the U.S. transferred five Afghan Taliban detainees to secure the freedom of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, American intelligence officials predicted that two of the men would return to senior positions with the militant group, according to U.S. officials.

The classified assessment, a consensus of spy agencies compiled during the prisoner-swap deliberations, said two others of the five were likely to assume active roles within the Taliban, while only one of the five released detainees was considered likely to end active participation in the group's effort to undermine the elected government of Afghanistan.

The excuses offered in defense of this move to replenish enemy forces are exceedingly lame:

Some administration officials also saw in the swap a chance to establish a precedent for reconciliation talks with the Taliban as the U.S. presence in Afghanistan winds down, and some argue the same five Taliban could have been released someday even without a prisoner-exchange agreement.

Talks with the Taliban who just attacked Karachi Airport and hope to take control of Pakistan’s government and the nuclear arsenal it possesses? Where is there any evidence that the Taliban are amenable to peaceful coexistence with the Great Satan?

Qatar also agreed to provide a "re-education program" designed to draw the detainees away from militancy, which some officials hope will help in the next year to ease some of the risk that the detainees will return to the battlefield.

These creeps are fanatics, and re-education in the lap of luxury in Doha is not going to persuade them to give up their dream of a global caliphate.

Reckless disregard is the kindest term I can come up with for Obama’s behavior.